The Vatican Information Service is a news service, founded in the Holy See Press Office, that provides information about the Magisterium and the pastoral activities of the Holy Father and the Roman Curia...[+]

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Friday, April 25, 2014

Vatican City, 25 April 2014 (VIS) –
The bishops of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference,
from South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland, were received in audience
by Pope Francis this morning, at the end of their “ad limina”
visit. Francis handed them his prepared address, in which he recalls
the arduous labours of the missionaries and the men and women of
these countries in sowing the seed of faith and reaching out to the
people in the villages, towns and cities, and especially in the
ever-expanding urban townships. He emphasised the “flourishing
parishes, thriving often against very great odds: far distances
between communities and a dearth of material resources”. He praised
the efforts made for the preparation of permanent deacons and the
formation of lay catechists to assist the clergy where there are few
priests.

“Priests and religious brothers and
sisters are of one mind and heart in their service of God’s most
vulnerable sons and daughters: widows, single mothers, the divorced,
children at risk and especially the several million AIDS orphans,
many of whom head households in rural areas. Truly the richness and
joy of the Gospel is being lived and shared by Catholics with others
around them”. The Pope remarks that, despite the difficulties faced
by Catholic minority communities in countries where many religions
are present, “the richness and joy of the Gospel is being living
and shared by Catholics with others around them”, and he prays that
they “will continue to persevere in building up the Lord's Kingdom
with their lives that testify to the truth, and with the work of
their hands that ease the sufferings of so many”.

He notes the serious pastoral
challenges communities face, according to the bishops, such as the
declining birth rate which affects the number of vocations, the
tendency of some Catholics to drift away from the Church in favour of
other groups who seem to promise something better, and abortion,
which “compounds the grief of many women who now carry within them
deep physical and spiritual wounds after succumbing to the pressure
of a secular culture which devalues God's gift of sexuality and the
right to life of the unborn”. He adds, “the rate of separation
and divorce is high, even in many Christian families, and children
frequently do not grow up in a stable home environment. We also
observe with great concern, and can only deplore, an increase in
violence against women and children. All these realities threaten the
sanctity of marriage, the stability of life in the home and
consequently the life of society as a whole. In this sea of
difficulties, we bishops and priests must give a consistent witness
to the moral teaching of the Gospel”.

The Holy Father expresses his
appreciation for the unity of the bishops with their people and their
solidarity with the vast number of unemployed in their countries.
“Most of your people can identify at once with Jesus Who was poor
and marginalised, Who had no place to lay His head”. He asks the
prelates to offer, alongside the material support they provide, “the
greater support of spiritual assistance and sound moral guidance”.
He also comments on the reduced number of priests and seminarians,
and urges “the authentic promotion of vocations in every territory,
a prudent selection of candidates for seminary studies, fatherly
encouragement of those men in formation, and attentive accompaniment
in the years after ordination”.

Likewise, he encourages the rediscovery
of the sacrament of reconciliation, “as a fundamental dimension of
the life of grace”, and emphasises that “Christian matrimony is a
lifelong covenant of love between one man and one woman; it entails
real sacrifices in order to turn away from illusory notions of sexual
freedom and in order to foster conjugal fidelity”, and approves the
bishops' programmes of preparation for the sacrament of marriage,
which are “inspiring young people with new hope for themselves and
for their future as husbands and wives, fathers and mothers”.

Finally, he refers to the bishops'
concerns regarding the “breakdown of Christian morals, including a
growing temptation to collude with dishonesty”, an issue the
bishops addressed in their pastoral statement on corruption, in which
they note that “corruption is theft from the poor … hurts the
most vulnerable … harms the whole community … destroys our
trust”. “The Christian community is called be be consistent in
its witness to the virtues of honesty and integrity, so that we may
stand before the Lord, and our neighbours, with clean hands and a
pure heart, as a leaven of the Gospel in the life of society”. He
concludes, “With this moral imperative in mind, I know that you
will continue to address this and other grave social concerns, such
as the plight of refugees and migrants. May these men and women
always be welcomed by our Catholic communities, finding in them open
hearts and homes as they seek to begin a new life”.

Vatican City, 25 April 2014 (VIS) –
The Holy Father has sent a video message to the Polish faithful,
compatriots of Pope John Paul II, and a written message to the
citizens of Bergamo, the province in which the village of “Sotto il
Monte”, birthplace of Pope John XXIII, is located.

In his video message, rebroadcast by
Polish Television (TVP) and by Polish Radio, the Pope remarks that he
is happy to be able to proclaim John Paul II a saint, and expresses
his gratitude to the Polish Pope for his “tireless service, is
spiritual guidance, for bringing the Church into the third millennium
of faith, and for his extraordinary witness of holiness”. Francis
recalls the words Pope Benedict XVI used to describe Pope Wojtyla in
the homily of his beatification in May 2011: “society, culture,
political and economic systems he opened up to Christ, turning back
with the strength of a titan – a strength which came to him from
God – a tide which appeared irreversible. By his witness of faith,
love and apostolic courage, accompanied by great human charisma, this
exemplary son of Poland helped believers throughout the world not to
be afraid to be called Christian, to belong to the Church, to speak
of the Gospel. In a word: he helped us not to fear the truth, because
truth is the guarantee of liberty”.

In his message to the citizens of
Bergamo, published in the daily newspaper “L'Eco di Bergamo” with
which Pope Roncalli collaborated during the years of his priesthood,
he invites them to “give thanks to God for his holiness, a great
gift to the universal Church”, and he encourages them to “conserve
the memory of the land in which it germinated: a land of profound
faith lived in daily life, in families that are poor but united by
the love of the Lord, of communities capable of sharing in
simplicity”.

The Holy Father comments that “the
renewal brought by Vatican Council II opened up the way, and it is a
special joy that the canonisation of Pope Roncalli should take place
alongside that of Blessed John Paul II, who continued this renewal
during his long pontificate”. He expresses his hope that “civil
society too may always draw inspiration from the life of Bergamo's
Pope and from the environment that he generated, searching new ways,
adapted to the times, of building co-existence based on the perennial
values of fraternity and solidarity”.

Vatican City, 25 April 2014 (VIS) –
Yesterday afternoon celebrated Mass in the Roman church of St.
Ignatius of Loyola to give thanks for the canonisation of the Jesuit
father St. Jose de Anchieta S.J. (1534-1597), evangeliser of Brazil,
linguist, dramatist and founder of the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de
Janeiro. Beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980, Pope Francis
extended his liturgical cult to the universal Church on 3 April, a
process equivalent to canonisation.

In his homily, the Pope commented on
the Gospel story of the disciples of Emmaus who relate their
experience to Peter, who has also seen the Risen Christ; then shortly
after Christ Himself appears in the room. “The disciples cannot
believe their joy; they cannot believe because of their joy”, he
said. “It is a moment of wonder, of encounter with Jesus Christ, in
which there seems to be too much joy to be true; indeed, to assume
the joy and wonder of that moment seems risky to us and we are
tempted to take refuge in scepticism, in 'not exaggerating'. It is
easier to believe in a spirit than in the living Christ! It is easier
to go to a necromancer who predicts the future, who reads cards, than
to trust in the hope of a triumphant Christ, a Christ who vanquishes
death! An idea or imagination is easier to believe than the docility
of this Lord who rises again from death, and what he invites us to!
This process of relativising faith ends up distancing us from the
encounter, distancing us from God's caress. It is as if we
'distilled' the reality of the encounter with Jesus Christ in the
still of fear, in the still of excessive security, of wanting to
control the encounter ourselves. The disciples were afraid of joy …
and so are we”.

He went on to speak about the reading
from the Acts of the Apostles which narrates the healing of the
paralytic, prostrate at the door of the Temple, begging. Peter and
John were unable to give him anything he sought: neither gold nor
silver, but they cure him by offering him what they have: the name of
Jesus. The crippled man's joy is contagious and, in the midst of the
hubbub Peter announces the message. “The joy of the encounter with
Jesus Christ, which it is so frightening for us to accept, is
infectious and cries out the message: and this is how the Church
grows! The paralytic believes, because 'the Church does not grow by
proselytism, but by attraction'; the testimonial attraction of this
joy that proclaims Jesus Christ. It is a witness born of joy,
accepted and then transformed into proclamation. It is the
foundational joy … without this joy, a Church cannot be founded! A
Christian community cannot be established! It is an apostolic joy
that irradiates and expands”.

Also St. Jose de Anchieta knew how to
communicate what he had experienced with the Lord, what he had seen
and heard from Him … and, along with Nobrega, he was the first
Jesuit Ignatius send to America. He was a boy aged nineteen. He had
so much joy that he was able to found a nation: he put in place the
cultural foundations of a nation, in Jesus Christ. He had not studied
theology, and he had not studied philosophy; he was a boy! But he had
felt the gaze of Jesus Christ, and he had let himself be filled with
joy, and chose light. This was and is his holiness. He was not afraid
of joy”.

The Bishop of Rome concluded by
mentioning that St. Jose de Anchieta had a beautiful hymn to the
Virgin Mary, to whom he compared the message of peace, that proclaims
the joy of the Good News. “May she, who in that Sunday dawn,
sleepless with hope, was not afraid of joy, accompany us on our
pilgrimage, inviting us all to rise, to set our paralyses aside, to
enter together into the peace and joy that Jesus, the Risen Lord,
promises us”.

- appointed Rev. Paul Simick as
apostolic vicar of Nepal (area 147,180, population 28,610,000,
Catholics 7,950, priests 71, religious 170). The bishop-elect was
born in Gitdubling, India in 1963 and was ordained a priest in 1992.
He holds a licentiate and a doctorate in biblical theology from the
Pontifical Urbaniana University, Rome, and has served in a number of
pastoral roles, including priest of the “Christ the King” parish,
Pakyong, India; dean of the East Sikkim Deanery; bursar and
subsequently deputy head of St. Xavier's School, Pakyong. He succeeds
Bishop Anthony Francis Sharma, S.J., whose resignation upon reaching
the age limit was accepted by the Holy Father.

Vatican City, 25 April 2014 (VIS) –
We inform our readers that, due to the canonisation of Popes John
XXIII and John Paul II this coming Sunday, the Vatican Information
Service will transmit special editions of its daily bulletin on
Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 April.